The present invention is directed to a system for providing users of the Internet with easy access to the World Wide Web. More particularly, the present invention is directed to providing a central location which World Wide Web users of the Internet can reach and can then instruct to provide them with ready access to a particular location on the World Wide Web portion of the Internet.
Use of the Internet, a worldwide network of millions of computers in more than a hundred countries, has become a major communications and information medium influencing many aspects of business and personal life. At the present time, almost every large corporation, university, government, organization, and many businesses and individual users around the world are connected to and have access to the worldwide network known as the Internet. The Internet is a collection of individual computer networks which are connected to each other by means of high-speed telephone and satellite data links, and which are all connected by a public-domain communications software standard.
The Internet was developed in the late 1960s, when it was established by the United States Defense Department as a research project for use by defense contractors and universities. The purpose of the Internet at that time was to create a military computer network which could still function reliably if any parts of it were destroyed in a nuclear war. A series of standardized communications protocols for sending information around the computer network were developed in order to ensure against the inherent unreliability of telephone lines and exposed telephone switching stations.
For over 25 years, the Internet was used primarily as a research-oriented computer communications network for universities, defense contractors, governments, and organizations in science and academia. During those years, it grew slowly but steadily, and its proved, freely available communications protocols were also adopted by the computer and telecommunications industries and by large corporations, who used the Internet for electronic mail communications between and among their companies. In 1992, the United States Government turned over operation of the Internet""s high-speed data links to commercial communications networks. That transfer, as well as the concurrent explosion in the use of personal computers, local area networks, bulletin boards systems, and consumer-oriented on-line services, caused the Internet to grow tremendously. Because of the convergence of those events, a critical mass for acceptance of the Internet as a standard means for the worldwide connection of individual computer networks of all kinds and sizes was created.
One of the reasons for the explosive growth of the Internet is the widespread acceptance of the Internet as the standard for electronic mail. The Internet is also well known for its two other main features, its Usenet newsgroups, which constitute thousands of on-line discussion groups covering a wide variety of business, personal, and technical subjects, and perhaps the most commercially important Internet phenomenon, the World Wide Web. The Internet is also increasingly used for real-time chat.
The World Wide Web or Web, as it is more commonly known, is a standardized method of combining the display of graphics, text, video and audio clips, as well as other features, such as secure credit card transactions, into a standardized, graphical, friendly interface that is easy for anyone to use. That is in contrast to the use of the Internet for electronic mail, which primarily consists of rapid text-based communications among individuals.
The Web was designed by a British scientist in 1991 as a way to let researchers easily publish scientific documents online. The creation of the first point-and-click software for xe2x80x9cbrowsingxe2x80x9d the Web, known as Mosaic, by the University of Illinois, enabled ready access to the Web by non-technically skilled users. Then, commercial companies, such as Netscape Communications Corporation, developed more sophisticated Web browsers, such as Netscape""s Navigator. Another Web browser is Internet Explorer from Microsoft Corporation, which is distributed with Microsoft Windows. Web browsers are also provided by well-known major on-line computer services such as America Online (AOL) and the Microsoft Network (MSN).
The standard protocols which define the Web work in combination with a Web browser which runs on personal computers and handles the chores of accessing and displaying graphics and texts, and playing back video and audio files found on the Web. In addition to providing Web access, Web browsers and the Web tie together all the Internet""s other useful features that existed before the advent of the Web, such as the newsgroups, FTP text file access, and, of course, sending or receiving electronic mail.
The World Wide Web standards are essentially a text coding, or xe2x80x9cmark-upxe2x80x9d method, where selected elements in a text file, such as article headlines, subheads, images and important words highlighted in the body of a text file can, by the insertion of special, bracketed codes (called HTML or Hyper Text Mark-up Language codes), be turned into hot links that are easily and instantly accessible by anyone with a Web browser.
The World Wide Web is considered by many to be the true information superhighway. In fact, the World Wide Web is such an important aspect of the Internet in most people""s minds that the terms xe2x80x9cInternetxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cWorld Wide Webxe2x80x9d are popularly (but incorrectly) used as synonyms. The World Wide Web lays the foundation for the use of the Internet as an entirely new broadcast medium, one which provides individuals, groups, and companies with unprecedented new opportunities for broadcast communication. For example, it is now fairly easy to create one""s own Web site or address on the Web such that all users on the Internet can reach it. The Web thus provides an outlet for anyone who desires to self-publish articles, graphics, video clips, and audio files over the net. Since any individual Web site can be freely accessed by anyone else with Web access, anyone who creates a Web site has a form for broadcasting their information, news, announcements, or creative works to an audience of millions. In addition, communication by Internet electronic mail can be established by any member of this audience with the author of a Web site, thus providing a new level of two-way communication to this new broadcast medium.
Because the Web provides several key benefits for Internet users, those benefits are encouraging the explosive growth of the Web and, ultimately, the acceptance of the Internet as the world""s de facto computer communications medium.
First, using the Web is simplicity itself. Compared to the confusing Unix based commands which were once required to use the Internet, using a Web browser provides the user with the same friendly, graphical point-and-click access to all the Internet""s features that the users have come to expect from any good stand-alone Windows commercial software product. Once a user has accessed the Web, any of the millions of Web sites and their linked articles, text articles, graphic images, video/audio clips, extensive software libraries, and communications features are easily accessible with a click of the user""s mouse key. In addition, any good Web browser software also opens up the Web""s multimedia potential by providing users with instant and automatic access to helper applications software that automatically plays video and sound clips. Such multimedia potential has become a big attraction on the Web.
Web browsers also have a bookmark or favorites feature, which allows the user to capture and save the location of any Web site that is visited, so that such sites can be readily reaccessed by clicking on it from the user""s Web browser at any time.
Using the Web, users can get instant access to many types of information, entertainment, and interactive resources which are now available on the Web. Because of the explosion of newly created Web sites, the user can get access to useful, practical information on an almost infinite variety of subjects. The Web also provides an instant connection to millions of other people on the Internet. The resources which may be found on the Web are almost limitless.
In order to understand the use and operation of the Web, it is believed that certain terms that will be used herein should be defined. A Web browser, as previously discussed, is a software program used to access the Web; typically, it is a graphical, Windows-based software program which is used on a personal computer to access the Web. A Web site or Web page (terms often used interchangeably, although, as noted below, they are not strictly synonymous) describes an individual location on the Internet containing a single Web-published feature. A Web site is basically a collection of files located under a directory somewhere on someone""s computer connected to the Internet. A Web site may consist of one Web page or of many Web pages, and usually also includes on-screen graphics, pictures, texts and video and audio clips, or an archive of software that can be downloaded, stored and used freely on the visitor""s own personal computer.
Frequently, Web pages utilize links or hot links, two terms which are used interchangeably, to describe words or groups of words which are highlighted on Web pages. When a visitor clicks on a link with his mouse, he is immediately linked to another Web site or location on the current Web site containing the information that is referred to by the link. Any single Web site may contain dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of hot links, both to other sections within the same site or to other Web sites located anywhere else in the world.
Some Web pages also include a links page which consists of lists of links to many other Web sites. These are often a Web site author""s favorite sites or feature links to Web sites pertaining to a specific subject.
Every Web site has an exact address, or location on the Web. Such addresses are known as a Uniform Resource Locator or URL. URLs consist of a confusing string of subdirectories, files or executable commands, separated by slashes, which are extremely difficult to work with and which must be typed into the user""s Web browser exactly as they appear, including the use of upper and lower-case letters, in order to go to a Web site. While clicking on hot links will get the user to a Web site without having to type in a URL or copying a URL from a text file (if it is located on the user""s computer) and pasting it into the user""s Web browser-screen, can save the user from this arduous task, the use of URLs has become the bane of the use of the Web.
Another difficulty with Web addresses is faced by advertisers who desire to use the Internet to provide their potential customers with targeted promotional offers and other highly specific information in connection with their ongoing marketing programs. For example, a company wishing to print an Internet Web address in its print advertising, featuring a link to a special promotional offer available to readers of that advertisement, or a link to a Web page containing information which is highly specific to the individual product being advertised, would ordinarily have to include a long Web address in its advertising, which the reader of the ad would have to enter, manually, to reach the specific promotional or informational Web page on the Internet, referenced by the company""s advertisement.
This problem increases with the size of the company""s marketing programs. For example, a large company with a large product line and an extensive nationwide advertising program may wish to offer readers of its print advertising many highly targeted Internet links; for example, with links to special promotions offered only in certain regional areas, or for a certain products, or to provide other highly specific information which is pertinent only to readers of a particular advertisement placed in a limited number of print publications. Ordinarily, to provide such links, this large company would have to print a long Web address in each of its print advertisements to link the reader of the ad directly to the pertinent, highly specific Web-based information on the company""s product. Readers of the company""s print advertising would find it a very tedious and difficult process to enter these long Web addresses. Because of this problem, most advertisers, regardless of the sizes of their advertising budgets, are unable to realize the full potential of the Internet""s ability to provide their potential customers with instant, targeted promotional offers and other useful, highly-specific product information.
In light of the above-described drawbacks of accessing the World Wide Web, it is clear that there is still a need in the art for a system for quickly and easily accessing selected beneficial sites or addresses on the World Wide Web portion of the Internet.
Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a system by which users of the World Wide Web portion of the Internet can readily access preselected Web sites or Internet addresses, after they have gained access to the World Wide Web portion of the Internet. More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a specialized Web site which can be used in conjunction with published jump codes to readily and automatically access other Web sites or Internet locations, without the user having to remember or input the URL of the desired Web site.
Even more particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printed publication containing descriptions of selected Web sites or addresses together with jump codes therefor which can readily be used in conjunction with a specialized Web site which includes software which, upon recognizing the inputted jump code, quickly and automatically accesses the desired Web site.
It is a further object of the present invention to be able to use the system of the present invention with any one of personal computers connected to the Web, Television Internet Terminal devices, wireless devices, or any other electronic device which can be used for Internet access.
The system of the present invention utilizes a published list of preselected Web sites. Each of the selected Web sites is assigned a specific jump code (of four digits in one particular embodiment). A user desiring to access one of the preselected Web sites first gains access to the World Wide Web, using a Web browser, by accessing a special Web site which contains software for receiving any of the published four-digit jump codes and, based upon the stored relationship of the URLs corresponding to the input jump code, directly accesses the Web site corresponding to the jump code inputted by the user.
In the case of so-called xe2x80x9cset topxe2x80x9d TV Internet Terminals, the user accesses the specialized Web site using the TV Internet Terminal and then enters the desired jump codes using a remote control which is similar to a standard television channel selector. In that manner, users with the TV Internet Terminal will be able to access the desired Web sites using their television, the TV Internet Terminal, and the remote control push buttons.
Of course, the invention is usable with any device capable of accessing the Internet, such as a personal computer, a set-top device, or a WAP-enabled mobile device. That device can access the Internet in any way; for example, it is contemplated that home users will typically use dial-up access, DSL, or a cable modem.
The published compilation of preselected Internet locations is published in any of a variety of ways. One example is a localized printed Yellow Pages telephone directory published in a localized metropolitan area, in which case the unique predetermined jump code is published within a printed display advertisement in the localized Yellow Pages telephone directory published for a localized metropolitan area. The unique predetermined jump code can be published within any printed display advertisement for a restaurant business establishment, in which case the printed display advertisement is published in the xe2x80x9cRestaurantsxe2x80x9d category of the localized Yellow Pages telephone directory published for a localized metropolitan area. The same can be done for a doctor""s office or health care provider, an automobile dealership, a local retail store, or any other business that advertises in the Yellow Pages.
Another example is that of newspaper advertisements. In that example, the published compilation of preselected Internet locations is published as a printed newspaper published for a localized metropolitan, area, in which case the unique predetermined jump code can be published within a printed display advertisement in the newspaper. Alternatively, it can be published in a text classified advertisement, e.g., a xe2x80x9cClassifieds-For Sale,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cReal Estate,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cHelp Wanted,xe2x80x9d or similarly-worded classified advertising category.
Still other embodiments concern the characteristics of the desired preselected Internet location. For example, in one such embodiment, the desired preselected Internet location displays a viewable screen which contains one or more promotional savings coupons or other promotional offers, which are displayed to the user after entry of the jump code corresponding to the desired preselected Internet location. In another, the desired preselected Internet location displays a viewable screen which contains an on-screen map and/or text providing the user with directions to the location of the advertised business establishment, which is displayed to the user after entry of the jump code corresponding to the desired preselected Internet location. In still another, the desired preselected Internet location displays a viewable screen which contains a photograph of the actual advertised item being offered for sale by the advertiser, which is displayed to the user after entry of the jump code corresponding to the desired preselected Internet location. In yet another, the desired preselected Internet location displays a viewable screen which contains an HTML-based hyperlink which provides for transmission of an electronic document file, which is displayed to the user after entry of the jump code corresponding to the desired preselected Internet location. As one particular example, the electronic document file to be transmitted can be a resume to be sent to a prospective employer. Technologies for providing coupons, maps and the like over the Internet are well known in the art and will therefore not be described in detail here; however, their use in conjunction with the present claimed invention is considered to be novel.
In the cases involving Yellow Pages and newspapers, a specific URL for entry of the jump code can be assigned to each publication and printed in the publication. Similarly, if jump codes are published over broadcast media, such a URL can be assigned to each network or to each station. In that manner, jump codes can be reused from publication to publication (network to network, etc.) with no fear of confusion.
With these and other objects, advantages and features of the invention that may become hereinafter apparent, the nature of the invention may be more clearly understood by reference to the following detailed description of the invention, the appended claims and to the several drawings attached herein.
Another problem solved by at least one embodiment of the invention is the need for print publishers and advertisers to link their print readers to very specific Internet addresses from their print publications, for the purposes of offering readers highly specific and targeted Internet-based promotions and specific and useful supplemental information on the advertised item. For example, an advertiser wishing to link a reader to a specific Web address containing additional, highly-specific information on the item or topic being referenced by the advertisement (such as a promotional offer which is targeted specifically to the readers of a particular issue of a publication), is faced with the option of having to print a long Web URL in the print advertisement which references that specific information available at the specific Internet location. Without the use of a jump code which links the reader to the specific Internet location providing this information, the advertiser would have to use additional, costly advertising space to print a long URL in the ad, and would subject the reader to the arduous task of having to enter this long URL to reach this Internet location. Since entry of long URLs can be a confusing task that is subject to a high probabilility of error, and since URLs must be entered in exactly by the user to reach the Internet location, a reader who mis-types this URL will be unable to reach the desired Internet location.
A short, 4- or 5-digit jump code printed in display or text classified advertisements, which links the reader to the specific Web address containing the promotional or other highly-specific information referenced in the advertisement, makes it much easier for the user to reach the specific Internet location containing the promotion or information desired by the user. By mapping a highly specific Web link to an easily-entered jump code, an advertiser can also offer a promotion which is highly targeted to the advertisement placed in the specific issue of the publication, and is able to offer promotional opportunities or useful supplemental information to the reader that are highly specific to the advertising placement in that specific issue of the printed publication.